Kurds confirm release of eight Turkish soldiers

IRBIL, Iraq - Kurdish rebels on Sunday released eight Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq two weeks after capturing them in an ambush in Turkey, Kurdish government and insurgent leaders said.

The release came before Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets President Bush today in Washington to agree on measures against the rebels, and avert a cross-border offensive against the Kurdish rebel group.

A spokesman for the group that captured the soldiers, the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, said the eight were released Sunday morning near the border between Turkey and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq's north.

"The eight were freed this morning at 7:30 and handed over to Iraqi Kurdish officials in the mountains," said Abdul-Rahman Chadarchi, a PKK spokesman.

Fatma Kurtulan, one of three Turkish Kurd lawmakers who traveled to northern Iraq to help negotiate the soldiers' release, said it was an emotional scene when the men were set free.

"I couldn't hold my tears," she said. "They were very happy. They all told us how well they were treated ... They thanked us over and over."

She added that the soldiers even expressed their gratitude to their captors for the way they had been treated before leaving.

"They kissed and gave long hugs to each other," she said. "It was a bitter happiness."

The soldiers were taken in an Oct. 21 ambush inside Turkish territory. The ambush also left 12 soldiers dead and raised pressure on Turkey's government to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

The release of the soldiers, however, was not expected to affect Turkish plans. Turkey's military and civilian leadership repeatedly have stressed their determination to stage an incursion if the U.S. or Iraq do not crack down on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.

An official with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, who spoke on condition he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the eight soldiers were turned over to the Turkish military at the Pamarni Air Base near the Iraqi city of Amadiyah.

The base is one of five the Turkish military has maintained in Iraq's northern Kurdish region since the 1990s. It is about 6 miles south of the Iraqi-Turkish border.

The Turkish military, in a terse statement on its Web site, confirmed that the soldiers had been handed over to Turkish forces, although the statement did not say where.

"The eight personnel have rejoined the Turkish Armed Forces as of Nov. 4, 2007," the Turkish army statement said. Turkish television reported that the soldiers had been flown to Istanbul by early afternoon.

A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government, Fuad Hussein, said Sunday the soldiers departed for Turkey before noon.